Friday, 31 May 2013

30 May – South Beach to Yachats

Up in the morning for a trip to the Oregon State Aquarium. It was really interesting. We saw the sea lions being fed and doing tricks for fish, like waving, standing on their front flippers and doing somersaults. 

The otters were fun to watch too, very inquisitive and quite show off-ey. One kept bringing shells to the window and banging them on the glass for us. 

One of the otters was being a bit…well…rude… and it was amusing listening to people who hadn’t worked out what he was up to commenting on how cute he was. We walked through the glass tunnel with sharks and rays going overhead, and saw the resident octopus. She was very cool –she kept changing colour from almost white to deep red. 


We went from the aquarium to Newport harbour and wandered up and down the street looking at shops and watching the fishing boats. Under the pier there were sea lions basking. The males were quite controlling of the females – one was using his wife as a pillow and yelled at her every time she moved. We saw the shrimp factory churning out millions of little cocktail shrimp.

Leaving Newport we drove south to Yachats. We stopped for a look at the Devils Punchbowl – a deep crack in the cliff that the waves rush into and smash up into the air. 

We walked down the cliff to have a look and followed the trail around the headland for a bit, then back up. It was a lovely walk. Then on to the Carl G Washburne State Park for the night – again a gorgeous state park. We parked up and went for a walk down the beach and back. At Newport it was almost like a line was drawn across the coast. North is wet and forested with cliffs and south is drier, more open and more sand dunes. We could actually see looking North, about two headlands up, the line – grey sky suddenly giving way to sunshine and clear skies. Really strange! 

We enjoyed the sunshine and the beach, then back to the RV for freshly shucked oysters and sparkling Muscat.  

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